London Lives

Synopsis

This Book Charts The Experiences Of Hundreds Of Thousands Of Londoners Who Found Themselves Submerged In Poverty Or Prosecuted For Crime, And Surveys Their Responses To Illustrate The Extent To Which Plebeian Londoners Influenced The Pace And Direction Of Social Policy. It Illuminates The Lives Of Prison Escapees, Expert Manipulators Of The Poor Relief System, Celebrity Highwaymen, Lone Mothers And Vagrants, Revealing How They Each Played The System To The Best Of Their Ability In Order To Survive In Their Various Circumstances Of Misfortune. In Their Acts Of Desperation, The Authors Argue That The Poor And Criminal Exercised A Profound And Effective Form Of Agency That Changed The System Itself, And Shaped The Evolution Of The Modern State. It Also Presents A Pioneering Account Of The Evolution Of Social Policy And Criminal Justice In The Eighteenth Century, Charts The Lives Of The Poor And Criminal And Explores Their Vital Role In The Shaping Of The Modern World, And Calls Upon A New Body Of Evidence And The Latest Digital Technology To Reconstruct The Lives Of Non-elite Eighteenth-century Londoners. Beggarman, Thief, 1690-1713 -- Protest And Resistance, 1713-1731 -- Vestries, Justices And Their Opponents, 1731-1748 -- Reformers And Their Discontents, 1748-1763 -- Finding A Voice, 1763-1776 -- The State In Chaos, 1776-1789 -- Epilogue, The 1790s. Tim Hitchcock And Robert Shoemaker. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.